Happy Friday the 13th!

Oh boy! The kids are squirrelly today. It's a 1/2 day and Valentine's goodies are being passed about. I have 2 dozen cupcakes within reach for the Chicklet's school party that I'll be headed to this afternoon.

This time last week I was the one with the ants in my pants. I took Kelly Kilmer's Wisdom book workshop at Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale. I came home with a "fabulosooooooo" book.Remember these? These are mine, all mine!!!!!! Whippea! Hooray! I found plastic lace doilies when we were antique shopping in Prescott. I had a set tucked away in my supplies to use for Kelly's class.Love, love, love the doilies as stencils, used Kelly's rubber stamps on the cover.

Did some painting on my own.In the left is painting following Kelly's prompts and to the right is the same layers of paint but over a page I had already painted. Bright vs. deeper, richer color. I like them both!We had a chance to collage a couple of pages. Collage #1. I pull all those Ralph Lauren paint adds with the paint laden paintbrushes.Found this lady in Kelly's stash. Found a great looking chicken too but it didn't quite fit on the the narrow page. He's getting "some work done" via the copy machine. Then he'll be the right fit.

It was a great class. Sat next to my buddy Gwen who I hadn't see in awhile. I hear Kelly's going to come back soon. Yea!!!! Hope I can fit a few more classes in next time.
Marissa

More January Collages

OK. Looking at all the pics I've uploaded I can now understand why I was running around all week. I was busy! There are still a few more collages left to finish off the month of January of the Kelly Kilmers' Prompt A Day online class. It's been a blast and I am loving the journal that is becoming full of images and stories to hand down to the Chicklet.
I see brown and pink together and I think of Baskin Robbins where we used to go get ice cream. Strawberry sundaes with chocolate chip ice cream, mmmmmm.....
Oh boy, this was was tough writing about. I had a boyfriend overseas but we continued the relationship after I returned to California and went to college. He was killed in a freak accident at work. I was 23. At that time I was young enough to believe and hope that I could still have what we had again. 23 years later with a badly failed marraige and having gotten off the dating bandwagon the hope of youth is elusive.
Halloween...I can't decide which was better. Tearing sheets and wrapping my brother up as a mummy-my sister and I had to keep wrapping him up throughout the night OR the Chicklet as elephant and me as her Peanut sidekick...
Oh, how I'd love to have Tom Oldham come design my home. Yet, I do like enjoy my Mexi-Scan decor. Part Mexican, part Scandanavian...
Tiffany blue? Nope, Estee Lauder perfume box blue. I haven't smelled that scent since my Tia Mary passed away.
Who would have thunk I could find not one, but 2 images of blowing gum. My brother taught us a few things....Still can't whistle, though.
Ever have a book you never read but wore out from looking at the pictures? That was me and Hans Christain Anderson's "Snow Queen." I found that book again. Mom saved everything!
My brother and sister both had names chosen from the bible. Me? My mom said she liked the name. Somewhere I read that it means, "of the sea." I like that.
Valentine inchies, lots and lots of Valentine inchies for a swap and then a few extras for friends.
More Inchies for a swap due last week. I get tired just looking at everything I did in one week. Whew!

The laptop has been making the trek home but hasn't made it out tof the bag. Between swaps and journal pages, the Chicklet's Frida Kahlo costume and going out of town for the weekend, it was non-stop. I'm sure having fun though!

New Collages

The new year started with a new journal. I'll be hauling this one around until March. I took a composition book with blue, green and pink vertical stripes thinking I would emphasize the cool colors for a winter-ish theme. As you can see it didn't quite fall into place. I did like the image of the hand drawing and glued that onto the cover. If I tuck my pen in right, it looks like it's in the hand. Cheap thrills. I admit it, I am a cheap date.

Pocket page. I continued with the electric blue theme. Some things I like, some.....my focus has been elsewhere.

I was still in the mood to cut and glue. One more collage in the journal.

Studio time got sidetracked over the weekend but I'm still keeping up with my Prompt A Day pages. My first album purchase was Elton John's "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy."
If I could walk out the door and go anywhere... Hmmmmmm... Should I go somewhere I know or somewhere I've dreamt of going to? Norway or Africa? Mexico or the Northwest Territories to see Polar bears? Finland or the South Pole?

I could drag the Chicklet to anywhere in Arizona and we'd have a good time. I hope she gets to travel the world. That sounds corny but it's true. I may not get far now but I've been more than lucky to have traveled to and lived in far away places.
I don't get to LA much anymore. This was one of my favorite destinations. The front porch of my parent's house. I'd sit in the sun like a lizard to get warm. Or I'd write in my journal. Or I'd sit on the top step, lay back and take a nap in the sun.
One of my chores was to clean up around the plants. It was a relaxing task. Lots of greens and pinks and purples. I miss having a garden.
Marissa

School started! Can you tell?

Tomorrow I'll be whining and moaning and groaning about getting grades done for Friday. Yes, it's that time again-report cards. I was a big meanie and sprung drawing realistic self-portraits on my 4th graders this week. Some of them are pretty good.
In the meantime I'm dealing with a little "invasion" in my kitchen. They got to the fridge. Yessiree! It's the invasion of the Littlest Pet Shoppe Creatures!!!!!!!!!!! (Insert "Psycho" music here).Rows and rows of these varmits are camping out on the fridge. The Chicklet decided this is why they come with magnets, lol.

Tonight I'll be in the studio working on the next 2 prompts for the "Prompt A Day" online class.
I'm having a blast. Making, participating and seeing what everyone else comes with given that we're all following the same steps and journaling prompts.Project #3: Layered acrylic paint, decorative handmade paper, rubber stamping, Sharpie pen, photocopy on transparency.

I'm not a big fuschia with purple fan but the colors were perfect for this lay-out of my friend Kelli. These are her colors. It's been so crazy at work this week that I haven't been able to share this page with her. Over the years we've become close and know that we can turn to one another. I have to find a way to keep her from retiring in 5 years!!!!! She's my partner in crime in our Fine Arts Posse.
Project #4: Layers of acrylic paint, patterned tissue paper, patterned napkin, Google images, Sharpie pen, Sharpie paint pen, watercolor pencil.

I had to call my Dad to find out what kind of car we had way back when. He remembered it was Pontiac but didn't know the year or model. After googling images for an hour or so, I'm pretty good at telling the difference between the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's models!

The lay-out isn't my favorite. I had an idea of the image I wanted and I couldn't find it nor in the size I was thinking. At some point you take what you get and I went ahead with what I found. The best part was remembering going the grocery store in the evening in East Los Angeles with my Dad as a little kid. My big job was to carry the strawberry jam...I think I was about 4 or 5 years old.Project #5: Layers of acrylic paint, magazine clippings, glaze jelly roll pens, Sharpie paint pens.

Fire on the water. I spent some memorable years in Western Norway right after high school. My idea of paradise is still being on the fjords in summer. Back then there were only 2 major TV channels so I spent a lot of time watching the ferries go back and forth. We lit a huge bonfire on the water's edge on the Summer solstice.Project #6: Layers of acrylic paint, magazine clippings, Sharpie pen, Sharpie paint pens.

The Ladies of Thursday Therapy Rock!!! Who are these gals? They're my company of choice whenever I have a free weekend or a school break. Otherwise they meet every Thursday for a day of creating and drinking wine with a nibble of lunch.
The image is from a sand sculpture competition in Haifa, Israel. I pulled it from Hadassah magazine and threw it in my clipping file. I went thru my "orange" basket and this sand goddess fit perfectly with the my idea of the TT gals. Regal Goddesses. I cut out words and phrases that described them and glued the words amongst the journaling.

It's not important to me that anyone who sees these pages reads the journaling. In fact, I'm so used to keeping my journals to myself that I really don't want my words to be readable. Even if the writing can't be read easily, it's obviously there. It adds another texture to the surface and a little element of mystery.

If you're interested in trying out any of these techniques you can take (a) class(es) with Kelly Kilmer in Scottsdale February 6th-8th! She's teaching 5 classes at Frenzy Stamper OR sign up for A Prompt A Day!

Marissa

Yummy Art

It turned out to be a busy weekend. The Chicklet and I made our way out to Scottsdale to deliver my pages for the Get your Funk On found Object Chunky Pages Swap. Each participant chose a different page size with the end result of each of us having a very quirky book.
My final page was 3.5" x 7" but I worked on them as a 7" x 7" page that I folded in half. The background was created by taking my stash of paper towels that I've accumulated over time in the classroom. Anything that's been used to blot paint or clean up and had color on it was in that pile. I separated the towels into warm and cool colors, tore them into smaller pieces and glued them onto tagboard.
I was a lot happier with the cool colored sheet due to the fact that I didn't have enough warm colors so I threw in more purple on the warm colored sheet than I'd anticipated. Then I gathered some of my favorite found objects for stamping and stamped acrylic paint randomly over each page. Next stop was some meandering zig zag stitching on each page.My goal was to use a lot of stuff I have laying around. The rectangular objects are the discarded watercolor refills from my classroom. I've been trying saving them for years wanting to do something fun with them. The light bulb flipped on for this project. After making some unsuccessful attempts to make holes in the refills, I glued them down.
I love word play and had to use old keys to create the word "Fun-Key" on the back. Lastly, each page was labeled, stitched together and they were ready for delivery.

With the week we had, I decided to head out to Mesa and have an unexpected treat for dinner. The Chicklet and I headed out to Mangos in Mesa. I decided to stray from my usual and had tacos instead. They were the best tacos I've had in ages! We took our churro home with us and had hot chocolate and churro for dessert. It hit the spot...

While the Chicklet headed out to her adventures with her dad Sat. morning, I made my way to Frenzy Stamper for the binding party for our funky chunky pages. It was a good size group. I wasn't focused on accomplishing much other than to get ideas by seeing how everyone else was binding theirs.It's another bulky book. I liked some of the ribbon bindings I'd seen but found that I didn't have any on hand today. I pulled out some fabric swatches and ripped two long strips to use. I'm not 100% sure about the result but I do like the the torn cloth. I'll look for another color at home.
Once again, I ended up with some fabulous art pieces from a variety of artists. Major eye candy and tons of ideas. I'll share some close-ups throughout the week.

Marissa

Latest Creations

I've been juggling projects. Here's my page for the 2008 Art Unraveled Technique Chunky Book swap. My page was inspired by "Landscapes of the Mind" with artist Anne Grgich. I took two classes with her and absolutely loved her techniques. Painting with coffee? Hilarious! I printed coffee cup rings with coffee for recipe swap pages last month.
We focused on portraits during her workshops but one lady drew a bird for her collage and I still had it in my mind. I wanted to keep it loose and simple and chose a flower image.

I started out by gluing down pages torn from old art ed magazines. Next, I painted over it with a wash of yellow and gold acrylic. Next step was the black outline done with Golden Asphaltum paint. I almost freaked! The paint came out heavier than I expected and it took days to dry. I mean days....this is Arizona. I expected it to be dry overnight.

Once it dried enough, the flower petals were painted with washes of acrylic and watercolor crayons were used to add a little texture. Each page was outlined with Sharpie that went kaput after a few pages. I think the markers picked up some of the glue and they stopped working. The rest of the pages were painted. I had a few choice words floating around the studio...
The altered composition book for another swap is done. I was going to add color but in the end I really liked the simplicity of the collaged textures. I added two rows of ribbon along the left edge and spelled "thoughts" with acrylic letters.
I did add color on the photocopies of the cover collages and used those pages on both inside covers. Watercolor crayons were used to color over the security envelope textures which I outlined with Sharpie Poster Paint markers.

I folded a couple of pages over to create a pocket and used some leftover scraps from the cover collage to make it big enough. The word "Keep" was stamped and outlined. It's ready to mail.
Next project-Funky Chunky themed pages for another swap. Everyone chose the size of their page. Mine is 7" x 3.5" It's new size for me which is exactly why I picked it. I pulled out every paper towel stained with paint that I've been setting aside for some time. What was I holding onto them for?????

I tore them into pieces and randomly glued them down to a large 24" x 36" sheet of tagboard. I made two large sheets. One with cool colors and another with warm colors, until I ran out and added purples. The cool colored pieces are my favorites, so far. The large sheets were cut down into 7" x 7" squares and then folded them in half.

I have a couple of ideas for the next steps. Sewing....painting...printing... we'll see.
Marissa